Individual Reflection<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Benjamin Rivera Medina<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Duvall<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Course Number: CYSE 368<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May 4, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cyber Clinic internship has taught me many valuable skills that I can use as expiernence when I am ready to enter the workforce of cybersecurity. I expected to learn technical skills, but gained experience and other skillsets I never realized I needed until enrolling for this internship. This internship was different from most courses and required more attention to detail and focus to meet the expectations of the professor and the clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time management was a considerable success for myself and my team when regarding assignments and meeting deadlines. This is an accelerated course and requires more engagement in contrast to other cybersecurity courses. My team would always start projects early such as the final report and reflection presentation to ensure success. In addition, balancing this internship with other courses was successful as well. Balancing my four other courses with this internship required strategy and time management. I was able to pass all my courses and ensure continued success at ODU. One area that could have gone better would be when we first met our client. My team was nervous when we first met Caitlin and we did not have a plan. This made the first interaction awkward at first, but we recovered and began to introduce ourselves and discuss availability and core objectives. If I were to redo the internship, I would create a plan with my team for how we introduce ourselves and what we would discuss during that first initial meeting. First impressions are crucial to how the client perceives you so having a plan shows professionalism and preparedness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This internship met all five objectives stated in the memorandum of agreement. First, practical application of classroom knowledge was utilized throughout the course. Engagement with the client and creation of the final report required analyzing the business using the NIST framework and CISA CPGs as guidelines. Working with the client requires communication and collaboration in a team environment. Engagement with the client in meetings required consistent communication between my team and the client to align schedules and availability. In addition, developing and finalizing the final report requires teamwork in dividing different risk assessments and contributing to researching recommendations to improve the client\u2019s security posture. To analyze and conduct risk assessments for our client, it required extensive exposure to cyber threat intelligence. Discovering which cyber attacks our client was most vulnerable too required. This resulted in extensive research on latest cyber threat trends and how artificial intelligence has been impacting cyber-attacks. In the same regard, our team had to understand industry\u2019s best practices to give the most effective recommendations. These can include cybersecurity best practices such as access controls and password complexity policies. Finally, we had to conduct research to further develop the final report and create innovative cybersecurity solutions to meet our client\u2019s specific needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the most exciting and motivating aspects of the internship was the structure of how the final reports were made. The professor and teacher assistants gave creative freedom for how the final reports were made provided that they met certain criteria. This allowed for maximum engagement and accountability in each team to get the reports done. In addition, this also allowed for each final report to be unique in structure and delivery for each team. One of the challenges of the internship was the workload and trying to balance it with other responsibilities. Balancing a full-time job, four classes, and an internship required a lot of focus, time management, and strategy to succeed across all my responsibilities. What allowed me to succeed in this course was always to start assignments and projects early to ensure I gave myself enough time to complete and meet expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Future interns who want to enroll for this course should prepare themselves in a few ways. First, time management skills are vital for succeeding in this internship. This course is fast paced and requires constant focus to meet deadlines. In addition, your schedule must be flexible for change as sometimes the course schedule has to be adjusted due to external factors. Third, public speaking is a necessary skill required to present to the class and clients. Practicing public speaking skills can help ease nerves and make yourself seem more professional and confident. Finally, being able to effectively communicate and work with a team is essential to completing the final report. While this seems like a miniscule skill, being able to effectively work within a team can heavily impact the final report. Due to the size of the final report, it must be distributed among team members to ensure completion by deadlines. However, the student selection process for the internship ensures that only the top performing students with strong accountability and academic integrity are chosen for the internship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I believe that slight changes to the structure of the internship can aid in making it a more impactful experience for students. First, the laissez faire style of the course is immensely helpful in holding students accountable and enforcing consistent engagement throughout the internship. This choice of structure allows for all final reports and presentations to be unique among teams. In addition, this allows students to grow and cultivate knowledge by studying on their own time and applying their skills towards projects with little assistance. This is great for reinforcing knowledge learned throughout the course and this should stay the same. One minor change I would make to the course is more engagement between classmates after the teams are made. After the teams were made, engagement between classmates outside your team was limited. This resulted in little to no engagement with some students within the internship. Overall, the structure of the internship is highly effective and does not require much critiquing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This internship has allowed me to cultivate skills that will allow me to further pursue my career and academic journey. I have learned the importance of not overthinking and thinking in the moment through Dr. Baki\u2019s design thinking presentations. I also learned how to communicate and collaborate within a team to complete projects by deadlines. Finally, I learned professionalism skills when first meeting a client and how to present yourself in a respectable manner. This internship will help me in my future endeavors in cybersecurity by giving me a solid foundation of hands-on experience in performing risk assessments for small businesses. Overall, the skillsets and experience that I have gained from this internship will allow me to succeed throughout my career at Old Dominion University and in the cybersecurity workforce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Individual Reflection Benjamin Rivera Medina Professor Duvall Course Number: CYSE 368 May 4, 2026 The Cyber Clinic internship has taught me many valuable skills that I can use as expiernence when I am ready to enter the workforce of cybersecurity. I expected to learn technical skills, but gained experience and other skillsets I never… <\/p>\n